Chapter 285: Besieged
Lin Mo’s gaze quietly swept over the few people who could still move. Zhuang Mingxu—even back when he was in a wheelchair—had carried himself like a big shot; Xu Yi looked as if he wanted to keep his arms crossed at all times, practically wearing the words “you mortals” on his face. As for the other one, Dean…
Lin Mo glanced at Antonio’s bulging arm muscles, then silently withdrew his gaze. “I think you feed him really well. Truly.”
Qi Lin burst out laughing without the slightest regard for tact.
By this time, Dean had already taken a bowl of porridge and was sitting on Antonio’s lap. The two of them fed each other bite by bite, all lovey-dovey.
Seeing Xu Yi standing there with his arms crossed, Xu Sa was just about to give him an out, when he noticed Li Zhuang beside them looking at Xu Yi with a half-smile that wasn’t quite a smile.
Xu Yi stiffened unconsciously. After some hesitant fidgeting, he picked up a bowl of porridge and asked, “Do you want some?”
The way he looked was exactly like a wronged little wife, and Xu Sa was utterly astonished by the sight.
“No need. Just trouble Healer Xu to bring it over for me,” Li Zhuang said, looking exceptionally polite—his smile even unusually friendly.
Yet Xu Yi was obedient to an almost ridiculous degree.
Xu Sa began to wonder if there was something going on between the two of them, but when he met Li Zhuang’s wicked grin that seemed welded onto his face, he silently pretended he hadn’t seen anything and turned to look at Liu Rui, who had slid down onto the floor. “Can you manage or not?”
Liu Rui sat on the ground, his head lined up with a bowl of porridge, a spoon clutched in his hand and trembling nonstop, giving the impression of someone with senile epilepsy. He slowly shoveled a mouthful into his mouth, nodded, and said, “Y-yes… I c-can… I… I’ll f-feed you.”
His indomitable spirit shone through in full display, leaving Xu Sa so embarrassed he felt like he could dig out a whole luxury villa with his toes.
Zhuang Mingxu had already brought out the stewed dishes as well, adding a ladleful to everyone’s bowls. “I was worried it might be hard for you to digest, so I made some stewed vegetables. This afternoon I’ll see if I can ask the lab staff about your condition, and try to make sure you can have something nutritious tonight.”
He picked up a bowl himself, about to go feed Lu Xi, when Zhuang Aiyi had already taken her own small bowl and pitter-pattered over, tilting her head up with a sweet smile. “Little Uncle, Ai Yi will feed you.”
Trailing after her like a tiny little shadow was an even smaller Taotao. She could barely hold her own bowl steady, yet still copied her, saying, “Taotao feed too.”
“Thank you, Ai Yi. Ai Yi is amazing,” Lu Xi said happily, accepting his niece’s feeding.
With no choice, Zhuang Mingxu turned to the Gu Qingyue brothers. After sizing the two of them up, he went to Gu Qingyue first. “Respect the elderly and care for the young—you go first. It’s not convenient to find extra help outside right now, so we’ll all just have to make do.”
“Sorry to trouble you, Brother Zhuang,” Gu Qingyue said. His condition had never stood out among the group, and his recovery was worse than the others’, so he didn’t bother with formalities.
They called it “making do,” but compared to everyone else’s clumsiness, Zhuang Mingxu was far more practiced.
“Brother Zhuang, I’ve got to say, this food you made is actually really good. I never heard that you could cook before,” Qi Lin said. Lin Mo and the others were sitting beside him. He held a small stainless-steel bowl and sat in the middle of them, passing it around—one bite each, no one minding the others.
Even while eating, he didn’t forget to chat with Zhuang Mingxu.
“Mingxu made this? I knew it—there’s no way your cooking could’ve improved this fast,” Liu Yang, who had come out the latest, said.
Qi Lin didn’t respond to him, but instead casually stuffed the porridge meant for Liu Yang into Lin Mo’s mouth.
“You were still expecting me to cook for you while I was in a wheelchair?” Zhuang Mingxu said with a laugh.
Qi Lin thought about Zhuang Mingxu’s previous condition—indeed, it hadn’t been convenient.
But this was something Zhuang Mingxu would never have said before. Even with the only teammate he had fought life and death alongside for over a year, there had always been a thin layer of distance. Since his leg recovered, he had become much more open and cheerful.
“There are kids in the Mingxu household, you know,” Ning Yuan said leisurely.
Everyone assumed he was referring to Zhuang Aiyi, but then Ning Yuan added, “He’s a textbook ‘dad-type boyfriend.’”
“What’s a dad-type boyfriend?” The group of straight men looked at one another blankly.
It was internet-savvy Gu Qingji who gave an awkward cough and explained, “A boyfriend who’s like a dad.”
The living room erupted in laughter.
After all the twists and turns, the atmosphere among them became even more harmonious.
After the meal, seeing that everyone was in decent spirits, Zhuang Mingxu told them about the current situation they were facing and the plans going forward.
“With our bodies in this condition, isn’t it too unsafe to stay here? Maybe we should talk it over with Major General Lu and have him take his people and leave the Kyoto Base together, come back to our place instead,” Ning Yuan said, feeling it was unreliable to remain.
“The Zheng family already has their eyes on us. Leaving now would only make it easier for them to snipe us outside the base,” Antonio disagreed. “Bringing more people means taking more resources and supplies, which would only accelerate their actions.”
“What if we leave quietly?” Xu Sa asked.
Zhuang Mingxu tapped his fingers in turn on himself, Qi Lin, and Xu Yi. “What are the chances that just the three of us could safely get all of you back to the base?”
Once he said that, no one spoke for a moment.
Their previous journey had gone smoothly because they had powerful abilities as a foundation, and teamwork had prevented major problems. Even so, there had been several close calls. On the return trip, with all the combat personnel incapacitated, any pack of gregarious mutated animals would be enough to wipe them all out.
Just as everyone was deep in thought, the bedroom door on the first floor opened. Lu Weiyi leaned against the doorframe, his cool, clear gaze sweeping over them. “Nothing will happen. I’ll take you back.”
Zhuang Mingxu stood up and strode over, settling the weak-limbed Lu Weiyi onto the sofa. “How do you feel? Still have a headache?”
“Much better,” Lu Weiyi said, taking the water Zhuang Mingxu handed him and sipping it.
“If the Zheng family mobilizes all their forces against us, then even if my uncle’s faction leaves with us, the base will inevitably hunt us down. What they’re after is our supplies. Worse still, if we return to the base, we might even lead them there. At that point, what they set their sights on could be the base we worked so hard to build,” Lu Weiyi said softly to everyone. His gentle tone made him seem much weaker.
Coupled with his already youthful face, he looked even less like the leader of a team.
Having passed through so many bases, the security of their own base was something none of the others could compare to. Back when they were isolated from the world there, they hadn’t really felt it; now, at the Kyoto Base, they frequently heard people talking about yet another base being overrun by zombies.
That kind of situation could never happen at their base.
“Then we might as well cut off their hopes completely, make them never dare to entertain the thought again,” Lu Weiyi said lightly, his voice carrying a cold, chilling intent to kill.
The Capital Base was one of the bases closest to Yueban Bay, and even some of the slightly farther supply points overlapped between them.
At present, although the various bases still hadn’t reached the point of self-sustained production, supplies were not yet in short supply either. But if large-scale zombie hordes or mutated animals were to appear later on, who could guarantee that they wouldn’t move toward safer places? When that happened, conflicts between bases would be ready to erupt at any moment.
Their base was not numerically advantaged; there were even quite a few ordinary civilians among them. Lu Weiyi had to make preparations in advance.
“You all rest first. Don’t overthink the rest,” Lu Weiyi said without further explanation. “I’ll make sure to get you out of here.”
“Actually… I wouldn’t mind dying here,” Xu Sa shrugged, tightening his grip on Liu Rui’s hand beside him. “Don’t put everything on your own shoulders.”
“Mm… mm, yeah,” Liu Rui replied. As long as he was with Xu Sa, nothing else mattered to him.
“That’s right. We’re a team. We’re all older than you—how could we let you shoulder everything alone?” Gu Qingyue spoke up with the air of an older brother.
Gu Qingji didn’t say anything, only nodded.
“Exactly, Captain. We’re brothers—when we’re together, life or death doesn’t really matter,” Qi Lin said, glancing at the others beside him and bumping their shoulders with his fist.
Although their words were full of hot-blooded passion, Lu Weiyi showed no sign of being moved. After a moment’s thought, he said, “I’ve imagined how I might die.”
Everyone quieted down to listen.
“Maybe dying while being surrounded by zombies, after exhausting the last shred of strength; maybe when the base is attacked, while protecting our home; or maybe during an assault by mutated animals, fighting with everything we have.”
“But it would definitely be after resisting with all our might—never like this, where others hold the knife and we’re the fish on the chopping block.”
Indeed, in their current state, they had no room to resist at all. If they really died here, it would be rather humiliating.
A complete waste of the abilities everyone had fought so hard to cultivate along the way.
“We should also discuss things among ourselves and try to find a more suitable solution,” Zhuang Mingxu said. He didn’t think it was appropriate to put everything on Lu Weiyi alone either.
All he could really do was put everyone into the space at critical moments, or use his abilities.
But given Lu Weiyi’s current condition, unless absolutely necessary, Zhuang Mingxu didn’t want him to use his abilities again. He cast a worried glance at the center of Lu Weiyi’s brow.
He brought over a bowl of porridge and didn’t let Lu Weiyi lift a finger, feeding him spoonful by spoonful as he looked at the others and said,
“I’ve already spoken with Major General Lu. I’ll handle persuading the Zhao family. I’ve sent Zhao Qiang a message requesting a meeting, and I’ll try to keep them from cooperating with the Zheng family. Major General Lu said he’ll take care of the rest.”
“How do you plan to persuade him?” Lu Weiyi leaned back on the sofa, slowly eating the porridge being fed to him, watching as Zhuang Mingxu skillfully wiped the corner of his mouth.
The familiar ease of it all made it obvious he was used to being taken care of.
“Zhao Qiang has absorbed too many crystal cores. They say his level is about the same as theirs. The last time he leveled up, he nearly died. Now he’s sparing no expense to acquire plant-type crystal cores,” Zhuang Mingxu explained.
“You want to sell him plant-type crystal cores?” Lu Weiyi asked.
“No. He could simply detain all of us. When that happens, no matter how many plant-type crystal cores we have, we’d have to hand them over,” Zhuang Mingxu said, then paused. “What if we directly promise to help him level up safely?”
“…That would work,” Lu Weiyi said. Although the cost would be considerable, it would be worth it at a time like this.
Even so, the pressure on Lu Xiao’s side was still quite heavy. Lu Weiyi knew very well the forces the Zheng family held.
Just the people under Lu Xiao’s command likely amounted to less than a third of the other side, and with the additional forces they could unite, there was no advantage at all.
He chewed his food slowly, trying hard to recall what had happened at this stage in his previous life, hoping to glean something useful.
After a long while, a smile spread at the corner of Lu Weiyi’s lips. His brows curved, and he said with an easy expression, “I’ve got a way.”
